Javier Fernández: Brian ensured me “you’re in good hands”

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I am a die-hard Spain fan. Everything (well, almost everything) about this country is fascinating to me. When I learned that the Grand Prix Final is going to be held in Barcelona again next season, and Spain is one of the candidates to host 2018 Worlds, I couldn’t hold my excitement. Neither could I hold my excitement when I saw the national flag of Spain rising to top, thanks to the historical achievement by Javier Fernández. Since I am an even more die-hard Barcelonista, I had to ask the question when I saw the “Barcelona Pirineus 2026” badge on his jacket.

From World Championships 2015, mixed zone interview after SP

Q: I noticed this “Barcelona Pirineus 2026” on your jacket, could you please explain a bit about it?

A: They are going to try to get Winter Olympics in 2026 in Barcelona, so it’s kind of like a promotion. They really want to get an Olympics, a Winter Olympics.

For more how he talked about the significance of this world title to figure skating and winter sports in Spain, please check Tatjana’s full audio record of Men’s FS press conference, where he surprised many of the media with the news of Barcelona hosting Grand Prix Final again.

From post press conference 1-1 talk

If you happen to have listened to the full record of press conference, you might notice that Javi didn’t give a final answer to my question “what is the best advice you have ever received from Brian” (and yes, I am the one speaking really stumbling Spanish…). So after the press conference, he told me his answer. I didn’t record any voice memo for this small talk, so the wording might be slightly different from his original words, but what matters is the story.

Javi told me it was not exactly an advice, but words from Brian that ensured him. It was right after he moved to Toronto and was unsure about everything around, Brian told him “Don’t worry, you’re in good hands.” Javi said these words gave him the confidence and courage to train and live in the whole new environment, where he knew he would be taken good care of.

I wanted to hear more about the story, but Yuzuru stopped us, urging Javi “after photo~” (and unfortunately I couldn’t continue the talk after photo because another group interview started right away).

From post FS in TV booth

Below interview is not done by me. I got the material from a friend of mine who works as a director for TV sports news. They didn’t broadcast all the Q&As, and my friend agreed to share with me the whole conversation.

Q: You skated after Hanyu. He got such a high score, did it affect you?

A: He got a really high score, and he got a lot of presents to the ice. Both of them got me a little bit nervous, because I knew he skated really good, and I had to wait a little bit extra outside to get on the ice, because there were so many presents for him. But still I had in my mind what I had to have it, and I was able to concentrate, focusing on my program. I went, and I did it, so I am really really happy that everything turned out this way. It’s a really complicated competition, but I am glad that I came and I competed.

Q: You defeated Hanyu tonight, what do you think about your performance?

A: I beat Yuzu, something that I was not… something that’s really difficult to do, something I was not expecting to do. And… because he’s an amazing skater, he’s the Olympic champion and he’s like… I saw him train, he the best of the best, so I was really surprised. I know for next year he’s gonna make it more difficult for me to be ahead of him, but that’s good. My skate, I think, was great. There was a little mistake on the quad sal, a bad fall, but still a quad sal fall counts more than a triple, so. I think the performance was great, I fought the program from beginning to end, and I was able to perform. I am grateful to the audience, and grateful to myself.

Q: I saw you two hug each other and moved into tears when you finished. Did he say anything to you? Secret?

A: He said “I wasn’t crying”, hehehehehe, he was like “I wasn’t crying”, but he was crying, right? Like he just said that because he didn’t want me to think like he was crying. He was really emotional, he had emotions at that moment, because he saw me, all the training I’ve been doing, in the Grand Prix Final he knew it was really special for me in Barcelona, and he was happy, he was happy. He was second, I am pretty sure he wanted to be first, but still he was happy for me, because he knows me really well, and he knows I’ve been training really hard as him.

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About fswei

My name is Wei, I have multiple identities, one being a freelance figure skating reporter. I don't work as a full-time reporter/writer, neither am I dedicated to figure skating. I've been reporting and writing on sports for different media since almost 10 years ago, but I only started to go to figure skating events as press from 2014, so I am new in this area. I speak native Chinese, fluent English and Japanese, and so-so Spanish, and that's why I started to receive offers from media to go to figure skating events in Asia. You can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/pandaatlarge for English/Japanese figure skating related tweets. You may also drop me a question on http://ask.fm/pandaatlarge :)

I was at the Worlds seeing Javier’s SP and FP. He is really great in skating as well as his friendly character and big heart. So moved by the friendship between these two. I lost count how many times I have watched the scene Yuzuru is crying and hugging with Javier. Thanks soooo much for sharing it.